Malignaggi mentioned 168-lb champions Christian Mbilli and Jose Armando Resendiz, as well as Hamzah Sheeraz.
“He’s young, he’s strong, you can come off that loss and a long layoff and be that age and Resendiz and you and and and it’s okay,” Malignaggi told Probox TV about Canelo’s upcoming fight against WBA champion Resendiz.
“None of these are easy fights for Canelo who is coming off a long layoff. Neither of these two are likely to ever compete for a real world title again, but they’ve been there and that’s why it’s interesting in the first place.”
If Canelo comes back in September as he plans, he says he wants a champion. But if Malignaggi is right, even a guy like Resendiz might be too much engine for a 35-year-old Canelo who has been through as many wars as him.
You have to admit, there is a massive difference between the Canelo who fought Gennadiy Golovkin in the rematch in 2018 and the one who looked completely out of ideas against Terence Crawford last September.
Malignaggi may be a polarizing guy, but he faces the cold reality of the current 168lb landscape. When you look at the guys that are holding the belts now, it’s a different world than the one that Canelo ran.
The division was basically overhauled while Canelo was sidelined with that elbow surgery and the Crawford loss. Christian Mbilli, Osleys Iglesias and Jose Armando Resendiz now have titles at 168.
Canelo’s style has become too economical. When you’re 35 and coming off major elbow surgery, relying on single, loaded power shots is a recipe for disaster against the monsters currently holding the belts.
The Crawford fight was a wake-up call. These new 168lb champions are natural super middleweights with engines that don’t stop. If Canelo follows through on his plan to fight a champion on Sept. 12 in Saudi Arabia, he’s looking at a completely different physical challenge than a Crawford chess match.
Since the second Golovkin fight, the resume has been a bit of a strategic masterpiece rather than a competitive one. Taking on Avni Yildirim, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant allowed him to unify, but none of those guys had the firepower to really hurt him.
Even the Berlanga and Munguia fights felt like high-level exhibitions designed to keep the money rolling without the risk.
The two times Canelo actually stepped outside that comfort zone against elite, dangerous talent, Dmitry Bivol and Crawford, he got beaten.
